Influence of the schedule of outcome presentation on causality judgements

Experiments examined the effect of various relationships between a response (pressing the space bar of a computer) and an outcome (a triangle flashing on a screen) on judgements of the causal effectiveness of the response. As the mean number of responses required per outcome on a variable-ratio (VR) schedule (Experiment 1) or the mean temporal interval on a variableinterval (VI) schedule (Experiment 2) increased, ratings of causal effectiveness of that response decreased. In Experiment 3, yoking procedures matched either the number of responses required per outcome or the temporal distributions of outcomes on a VI and a VR schedule, and responses on the VI schedule were rated more causally effective. In Experiment 4, the overall feedback function on a tandem VI VR and a tandem VR VI schedule was matched, and responses performed on the tandem VR VI schedule were rated as more causally effective.     

Depression and Hostility in Self-Mutilation

The presence of depression and hostility among self-mutilating patients is investigated. Mutilators, depressives and controls comprised the research samples. Non-significant differences in intropunitive hostility and depression were found between the clinical groups. Specific item differences in the depression assessment indicated a definite qualitative rather than quantitative difference in depressive symptomatology between the clinical groups. The interaction between hostility and depression and the implications for management based on these results is discussed.     

The non-mirroring mother and the missing paternal dimension in a case of narcissistic disturbance

SUMMARY

Heinz Kohut (1971, 1972, 1977), has developed an innovative framework for understanding the dynamics and genesis of disturbances in the sense of self — broadly speaking, the area of narcissistic disturbance. He has emphasized the failure of the primary objects (in his terms ‘selfobjects’) to be available as responsive mirroring figures who can also be idealized. The role of oedipal conflict is specifically de-emphasized. In this paper a patient is described for whom the factors noted by Kohut were relevant, but as well as these, issues related to a failure to negotiate the oedipal position and a denial of the primal scene were also crucial. These phenomena are not described in Kohut's writings. For this patient, the exclusion or foreclosure of the ‘paternal dimension’ (Chiland 1982) left her with a fundamental defect in psychic structure with profound ramifications. In addition various features of the transference pointed to a failure of early communication via projective identification and maternal containment, of the kind described by Bion (1962). This process is compared with that subsumed by Kohut's concept of mirroring.     

A psychometric profile of British police officers authorized to carry firearms: a pilot study1

In the United Kingdom, police officers do not, as a matter of routine, carry firearms. There are occasions, nevertheless, when armed police are deployed, and for obvious reasons any procedure that might improve the suitability of officers chosen to carry firearms is worth investigating.